Q&A with John Krasinski

A star of The Office talks about hanging onto his job.

Every office has a boss; most need a hero. As Jim Halpert, the bored but lovable paper salesman on NBC's The Office (second-season DVD available now), John Krasinski has revived hope in workplace romance and inspired every pencil pusher who's ever wanted to encase his coworker's personal effects in Jell-O.

ESQ: When the U.S. version of The Office debuted, there was no telling if it would survive. Are you breathing more easily in the third season?

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JK: Definitely. For a while we were all thinking about applying to a restaurant close to the studio, so that at a moment's notice we could go work over there. I remember thinking, We get a DVD of this, right? At least I can prove to my mom that it happened. Now people actually care about it.

ESQ: Viewers are getting kind of creepily invested in your character ending up with Pam the receptionist (Jenna Fischer). There are Websites devoted to it saying things like --

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JK: Someone needs to call Jim Halpert and tell him to get his head out of his ass? Yeah.

ESQ: Jim plays a lot of pranks on his cubiclemate, Dwight. Are you ready for the responsibility of inspiring copycats?

JK: I am. As long as they haze responsibly. I should do a public-service announcement.

ESQ: What's been the best prank so far?

JK: Maybe putting all of Dwight's stuff in the vending machine. But from a personal standpoint, popping the fitness orb he was sitting on. I was supposed to puncture it, and it was supposed to slowly deflate, but on the eighth take I hit the seam of the ball, and it just ripped open. He fell down and hit his head. If you watch the episode again, I literally lunge out of the frame because I'm laughing so hard.

JK: I can tell you it's smaller than your question. But being a part of it in any way is such an honor. My scene is basically a Siskel-and-Ebert-type duo reviewing Oscar-nominated films. They show a clip of a big blockbuster movie. I'm in that clip. It's so meta, it'll give you a headache.

ESQ: You're also writing and directing an adaptation of David Foster Wallace's "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men." That doesn't sound easy.

JK: No. The short story is composed of guys who don't have names being interviewed by someone who doesn't have a name, a face, or even ask questions. The subject material is all Wallace. The rest -- their world, their identities -- was my job. I decided on a university where a woman is doing her dissertation on the effect of the postfeminist era on men.

ESQ: Okay, now I'm getting a headache. We can't end so highbrow. Say something terrible.